THAT GIRL. By Eihel Turner.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 88

THAT GIRL. By Eihel Turner.

, (With 25 Illustrations by Francis Swan). London : T. Fisher Unwin. Colonial I Edition. ! Ethel Turner has attained such a posii tion in public favour as a writer of j , stories concerning colonial children that ' I her works find ready sale. "That Girl " j her latest novel, is not so strikingly origi- , nal as some of its precedessors ; it is not ! . so redolent of the Australian bush. By I many that will not be regarded altogether ' as a drawback. Marie Neil, "That Girl," j is an orphan whom Mr and Mrs Hender- , son are under agreement to care for and j ; suitably rear— a fact which Mis Hender- ' j son resents, with the inevitable result I that the girl is neglected and ill-treated. ' Arising out of the circumstances which , gave Marie into her care, Mrs Henderson ' has a grievance against Captain Curtis, of the "Roanoke." When the latter unexpectedly becomes possessed of a large sum of money and purchases a property at Rockwall, the lady has an opportunity

ol thwarting the captain's dearest wish by refusing to sell him the property which cuts his house and grounds off from the seashore, and she and her husband build a terrace of houses shutting out the skipper from the seaport. But though the heads of the houses are at daggers drawn, this does not prevent Marie from becoming acquainted with the children of Captain Curtis. The story tells of the ill-usage to which "That Girl"' is subjected, and of the doings of the Curtis children, in which Marie has a large share, despite the injunctions ot her mistress. Marie has a genius tor acting and for caricaturing her acquaintances, and it is the possession of this talent which eventually leads to her release from the tyranny of Mrs Henderson. The characters in this novel, with j the exception of Marie and Mrs Henderson, are somewhat sketchy. Mrs Henderson is a very objectionable woman indeed, but does not strike the reader as a , new creation. Marie also appears to have some resemblance to Gerty in her unregenerate days in "The Lamplighter. On the who?e, however, Ethel Turner's young people are far removed from the little prigs too often to be found in the stories of children placed before the public, and the reader will find his interest maintained right up to the very end.